Russo’s Ideas, Konnan’s Injuries & More

News

– Kurt Angle and Vince Russo have been talking quite a lot recently. Angle is getting a lot of power over his own programs, to the point that some have dubbed him the ‘new Jeff Jarrett’. He is said to be watching everything closely and offering opinions on it all. This got him into trouble when he was touring with ECW as most of the wrestlers there were more experienced than he is. In TNA, most of them are relatively new and admire Angle’s opinion as a veteran and superstar of the business.

– The angle with the James Gang trying to yell “Suck It” on-air and it being edited out by management was written by Russo. Even some of his supporters are saying he is just copying what worked in 1998 even though it’s stale in 2006. He told the James Gang he wanted to turn them into DX, which B.G. in particular was very negative about. Russo also wants to bring back Raven’s Flock and make Bentley & Kazarian into members, which they were not particularly happy about either.

– The next TNA PPV to be held outside of Orlando will be held in Chicago. No word on when it will take place yet.

– Konnan’s hip is in exceptionally bad condition now. He needs hip replacement surgery and tenatively plans to get it early next year, provided he can hold out that long. He has been putting it off for financial reasons, consulting doctors in Mexico to see if they can come up with an alternative remedy, yet he continues to wrestle on it in Mexico too. He recently admitted that it had got him addicted to painkillers, which he dealt with privately. The feeling is that if he doesn’t get the surgery soon he will end up in a wheelchair – and was said to be pretty much in need of one at recent TV tapings, where he couldn’t take more than a few steps and was suffering incredible pain.

– Konnan was also very unhappy that TNA cut out the Spanish language introductions for LAX. It was Dutch Mantell’s idea to stop them, since he felt most of the audience didn’t understand Spanish, but the decision was explained as their new Spanish announcer Willie Urbina being unable to do it as well as Hector Melendez did. Konnan felt it was an integral part of what made LAX seem unique to the audience. This came shortly after an incident at the tapings where AMW beat on LAX for a good 2 minutes rather than the planned 20 seconds. James Storm also attacked Konnan, even though he wasn’t supposed to (although Konnan hit him first), which exacerbated Konnan’s hip problems. Konnan got mad and walked out in the middle of the tapings he was meant to be commentating on in Spanish. Jeff Jarrett was furious and confronted him, asking him if his priorities were with TNA or AAA. Konnan said AAA, but that he wanted to stay with TNA and would never miss a major event of theirs.

– Jake Roberts probably won’t be used again. At a show in Toronto for Stranglehold Wrestling on 10/29 he took out his false teeth in the middle of his match and handed them to the referee.

– Shannon Ward, a.k.a. Daffney in WCW, was backstage recently, looking for work. The running joke is that whenever women show up looking for work in TNA, all the guys hit on her and all the girls hate her.

Credit: Wrestling Observer newsletter (click here for subscription information)